Browsing by Autor "Carolina Levis"

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    More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia
    (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2023) Vinícius Peripato; Carolina Levis; Guido A. Moreira; Dani Gamerman; Hans ter Steege; Nigel C. A. Pitman; Jonas Gregório de Souza; José Iriarte; Mark Robinson; André Braga Junqueira
    Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from across the basin, of 24 previously undetected pre-Columbian earthworks beneath the forest canopy. Modeled distribution and abundance of large-scale archaeological sites across Amazonia suggest that between 10,272 and 23,648 sites remain to be discovered and that most will be found in the southwest. We also identified 53 domesticated tree species significantly associated with earthwork occurrence probability, likely suggesting past management practices. Closed-canopy forests across Amazonia are likely to contain thousands of undiscovered archaeological sites around which pre-Columbian societies actively modified forests, a discovery that opens opportunities for better understanding the magnitude of ancient human influence on Amazonia and its current state.
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    Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition
    (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2017) Carolina Levis; Flávia R. C. Costa; Frans Bongers; Marielos Peña‐Claros; Charles R. Clément; André Braga Junqueira; Eduardo Góes Neves; Eduardo Kazuo Tamanaha; Fernando O. G. Figueiredo; Rafael P. Salomão
    The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian forests by overlaying known archaeological sites in Amazonia with the distributions and abundances of 85 woody species domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples. Domesticated species are five times more likely than nondomesticated species to be hyperdominant. Across the basin, the relative abundance and richness of domesticated species increase in forests on and around archaeological sites. In southwestern and eastern Amazonia, distance to archaeological sites strongly influences the relative abundance and richness of domesticated species. Our analyses indicate that modern tree communities in Amazonia are structured to an important extent by a long history of plant domestication by Amazonian peoples.